China has just joined the UK, Scotland and France in committing to ban gasoline and diesel vehicle sales by 2040. The world market for internal combustion vehicles is shrinking remarkably fast, and automakers are already starting to adapt to this reality.

How fast can it happen? Stanford professor Tony Seba, an expert in disruptive technology, thinks it will not take long at all. Seba is fond of showing two pictures of the same street in New York city, taken just 13 years apart. In the picture taken in 1900, you have to look hard to see the first car. In the second, from 1913, you have to look hard to find the last horse!

Under the influence of the fossil fuel industry, our Federal Government is trying in vain to slow down the inevitable transition to clean energy. The transition is quickly gathering speed, led by the private sector. Despite decades of lavish subsidies to the oil industry in the US and worldwide, automakers are rapidly reorienting toward electric vehicles. Volvo, Volkswagen and others are already committed to an all-electric fleets.

The future will favor companies which embrace it and move quickly in the right direction. Companies doubling down on the past will be left in the dust, deserted by bankers and investors alike. In the words of visionary engineer Amory Lovins, “when investors sense an industry is in the toaster, they don’t wait until the toast is done!”

Whether people and businesses want to make money, want to breathe healthier air, want jobs and prosperity, or want to head off catastrophic climate change, the answer is the same: clean energy. China has figured this out. American entrepreneurs have figured it out, too. Come on over to the bright side. Soon the internal combustion engine will be a relic of the past. Clean energy is the way to go!